Personal Narrative: Giving Back To Hawaii

Giving Back to Hawaii Growing up in a small town called Honoka’a on the island of Hawaii has taught me a lot. Hawaii emphasizes on always giving back to our community. I plan on doing that by helping kids develop skills, and fundamentals for the game of basketball. Basketball has been a part of my life since I was six years old and now I 'm going to be 18 years old, graduating high school and moving onto college. Basketball has always been a big part of Honokaa town because of players such as Kami Shigematsu , Keisha Kanekoa , Erica Tadio and many more. They all came out of the Honokaa

Girls Basketball program and they gave back to the community of Honokaa by coming back to the program and teaching the up and coming generations of future basketball

I started off helping with younger generations at the age of 14. As they were learning I was learning too. I helped at basketball clinics that happened year round teaching kids how to dribble, pass, shoot, develop fundamental skills. I started to ref basketball games starting off with five and six year olds. Then gradually worked my way up to 13/14’s as I grew older and more familiar with the game. I always love being in the gym and shooting and always getting better. I see kids coming into the gym playing basketball always wanting to learn something new. I 've got little ones coming to me while I 'm in the gym asking for help. It always makes me feel good knowing kids want to learn and play the sport that I love so much. I want to be able to coach basketball kids and teach them to play this wonderful sport. I had a small basketball team a couple of my basketball teammates and I coached last year when we were juniors and it was the best experience of my life. I always wanted to help and give back to the community of Honokaa. Parents have just been so pleased with what we’ve done for their kids. It 's always nice to help the up and coming generations and teach them what you 've learn and see them apply it in games because it 's such a big milestone to see that these kids I 'm teaching and helping are taking in what I 've learned and use it for themselves and improve on it